Broken Record
by Snargaluff Pod
Summary: Harry had enough of England and the constant pressure of being the 'boy-who-lived' and the 'man-who-conquered' and so left the country. However living this new life is a bit like walking around with an egg for a heart; a constant internal struggle to keep things from cracking and falling apart. Will fate actually be on Harry's side this time, or will he lose everything again?
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings and Salutations to you all! This fanfic is a rewrite G.L.E.E. , which some of you may have read. If you haven't read it then I honestly don't suggest that you actively seek it out, as it was honestly not very well written. Hopefully this works better the second time around!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Glee, nor Harry Potter or any of the songs within this fanfic unless stated otherwise.**

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Chapter 1

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Am I the only one

wishing life away?

Never caught up in the moment

busy begging the past to stay

Memories painted with much brighter ink;

they tell me I loved, teach me how to think.

'When' by dodie

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Harry hated his life. He hated what he had become. He hated what he was. He hated what they had made him.

In the weeks since Harry had defeated Voldemort he had turned into somewhat of a hermit. He couldn't leave his house without screaming fans harassing him. Hermione and Ron had used to force him outside and past the crowds to get some fresh air. The only place that Harry would voluntarily go other than Grimmauld Place was The Burrow. It would have been relatively easy to just avoid the Wizarding parts of Britain, but there were many witches and wizards who had no qualms about following around in the muggle world as well as in the wizarding one. There were multiple occasions where Obliviators had to be called out because Harry's stalkers were reckless and didn't seem to care about exposing themselves to the muggles.

He was only seventeen for Merlin's sake!

Harry would have been able to cope if he had Hermione and Ron by his side. However that was not the case. Five weeks after the final battle there had been an attack. The Burrow had burned in flames and Harry was too late to be able to save any of them. Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville, Teddy, Andromeda; they were all gone. Every last Weasley was dead and it was all his fault for not being there, for being too slow. They were all gone.

So he left.

There was nothing left tying Harry to Wizarding Britain anymore. No people to stick around for, no job or family. No reason to stay in dreary old England. So Harry decided to leave England behind him and start his life anew; somewhere where nobody would have heard of 'The Boy-Who-Lived. Harry decided to start with the place that he had most wanted to visit: the USA. Anywhere in Europe would be too close to England for comfort. Having the ocean between himself and the craziness of the wizarding world would be best. America was the best option that Harry had. He had debated between America and Australia, but the sheer amount of both magical and non magical deadly creatures in Australia swung Harry's opinion in America's favour. Australia also held the danger of bumping into Dr and Dr Granger whom Hermione had obliviated and sent there. There was no regaining those memories for the Grangers, but Harry would always remember them and Harry didn't think that he could cope with the pain of seeing them and their lack of recognition of who he was.

With the decision of the country of his destination made Harry found himself a large detailed map of America and set it down on the floor in the Library at Grimmauld Place. Harry started by crossing off the places that he would prefer not to live in, which was only a handful of places due to Harry's lack of knowledge of the majority of the foreign country. There were just far too many options available to him. It was an impossible task.

So Harry let fate, the entity that seemed to mock his entire existence, decide his destination. He was never going to be able to make the decision otherwise. Harry took a dart from the dartboard that was hung on the back of the door to the library and turned his back to the map. Harry threw the dart over his shoulder and heard it land with a satisfying thud. With more than a little trepidation Harry turned around to see where it had landed. The dart had landed somewhat to the eastern side of America. Harry bent down to take a closer look at his destination. The dart hadn't landed on some huge town, or so Harry assumed by the small size of the place on the map. It would be interesting seeing what the dart's destination would be like. Harry was off to Lima, Ohio. Harry had never really heard much about Ohio. Harry guessed that he was about to find out a whole lot more.

A fleeting thought flew through Harry's brain, almost leaving his brain undiscovered before Harry grasped onto it with both hands. What if he went back to school? There was no way that he could continue his magical education at the moment, the memories of war were far too fresh; but perhaps completing his neglected muggle education would keep Harry's mind busy enough that it didn't have the time to dwell too much on the past. It would also mean that he would be able to fully live in the muggle world if he so wished. If he completed his muggle education then he would be able to actually get a job in the muggle world, rather than relying solely on the money that his parents had left him. The more that Harry thought about it, the more attractive the idea became.

With that decision made Harry started to make preparations to leave England. There were many more things to arrange than Harry thought there were going to be. It wasn't a simple process of just hopping on a plane and suddenly being in America. Harry had ended up spending the better part of a fortnight sorting out all the arrangements and signing a seemingly endless amount of paperwork. Gringotts had been a great help. The bank, to Harry's great surprise, did a lot more than just the banking for the Wizarding World. Gringotts was a hub of legal procedures from writing up business contracts to adoptions. The bank had been able to get Harry all the muggle paperwork that he would need to live in America without an adult, such as a passport and emancipation documents. The Goblins had even been able to provide Harry with a fake birth certificate claiming Harry 'Evans' to be but sixteen years of age. Harry had decided that it would be best to get as much muggle schooling as he could. Gringotts had even been able to fake muggle schooling certifications for him. The Goblins had even helped Harry find a house in Lima to move into. All of this for a reasonable price of course.

Even with the endless paperwork, Harry was soon in America, after a flight that had most definitely tested his patience, walking out of the airport and hailing a taxi to take him to his new home.

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It had taken just under an an hour and a half for the taxi to reach Harry's new home. It was certainly quite daunting, after paying the driver, walking up to his new house. The building was a three bedroom semi-detached house roughly three blocks away from the local school, and within walking distance to the local amenities. It was a great house on paper and now that Harry was there in person it was just as good as the Goblins had described it to be. The house was large, probably too large for Harry to live in all by himself, but Harry didn't care. He wanted the opposite of what his cupboard had been. The house was large and spacious and had plenty of windows to let in the natural light. The house wasn't overly extravagant. Despite having more money than he knew what to do with, Harry liked to live relatively simply. He would splash out on the occasional item he needed or wanted, like the house, but he didn't need to show off his wealth. Downstairs there was a moderately sized living room, dining room and a large kitchen that Harry was pleased with. The only chore that he had ended up enjoying at the Dursley's was cooking the food. There was something in the way that such simple components could come together to create something delicious, something special that had just fascinated him since he was small. That was also part of the reason for his early fascination with potions. Snape had put a dampener on that spirit, but Harry was a lot better at potions than he let on at school.

One of the three bedrooms had, at Harry's request, been magically expanded and turned into Harry's personal library. The room, with it's magical expansion was huge, however Harry had a warded bookcase that swung open to admit one into the magical section of Harry's realm of books, making the room at first glance seem the same size as the other normal bedroom in the house. Harry also had decided to keep all of his magical items in this room as well, so that any muggles in his house didn't see anything they shouldn't have by mistake. Harry wasn't expecting to have anybody over at any point, after all he had no friends as they were all dead. However, keeping the magical things in the expanded section would mean that if he did he wouldn't have to worry about clearing up anything and everything magical.

Both the spare bedroom and the master had en-suites. The master bedroom of the house was Harry's bedroom; said bedroom being Hogwarts themed. One wall was entirely taken up by a mural of the castle in all its glory, the view that one could see from the lake. Whoever had painted it had done their job well. The other three walls were simply painted in complementary shades of green blue and yellow. Gryffindor had not been forgotten. The bed that was up against the wall opposite the mural was an almost replica of his bed from the Gryffindor dorms, complete with the burgundy bed curtains that Harry had grown to love over the years. Upon a closer inspection of the bed Harry discovered that it indeed was the exact bed that he had occupied at Hogwarts. Harry had at the beginning of his first year carved his initials into one of the bedposts; a mark that he had found when he inspected the bad. Harry supposed that the Goblin's had been able to procure it somehow. Although Harry had no idea how they had achieved such a feat, he was ecstatic to be able to have some part of his life in England over in America, even if it was just something as simple as his bed.

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It didn't take Harry very long to unpack. Magic was a wonderful thing when it came ot packing and unpacking. Harry was grateful that he wasn't going to have to spend days unpacking all of his belonging. Unpacking had only taken Harry a couple of hours, and that was only because Harry had decided to arrange some of it by hand instead of using magic. Harry soon found himself with nothing to do. Harry decided, as it was only 2 o'clock in the afternoon, to go on a walk around the local area.

Soon Harry was lost in thoughts of England whilst walking through the streets of Lima. He couldn't help but compare the place to Little Whining. The houses in Lima were so different to those back in Surrey. Each house was different; each house had it's own personality. None of the houses were identical which was in stark contrast to Privet Drive. Lost in thought as he was, Harry didn't realise that there was anybody else on the pavement until he literally bumped into them, knocking the person over. It was only Harry's honed reflexes from the war that enabled him to catch the other person before they hit the ground and help them up straight. Harry was immediately stuttering out his profound apologies to the girl in front of him.

"I'm so sorry! I was lost in my thoughts and I wasn't looking where I was going, and Merlin, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry. I- I'm so sorry! I-"

Harry was suddenly interrupted by the person whom he had knocked over.

"Gee, you really like to apologise, don't you?" They said with a smile.

"Err, Sorry."

The girl laughed again and it took Harry a moment before he realised that he had apologised again and he joined her in laughter. Harry was hit with the sudden realisation that this was the first time that he had laughed since The Attack. The thought of the dead he had failed sobered him and Harry cut off his laughter mid chuckle. Harry swallowed nervously and took a deep breath in.

"Harry Evans." Harry said, holding his hand out to the girl.

"English?" The girl asked tilting her head sideways. Harry nodded in response.

"Just moved here."

"Me too!" The girl exclaimed, her face lighting up. Harry was baffled at the change in the girl. Was it possible for one person to be that happy? "Are you in school?"

Harry nodded once again. The start of the school year was only a few days away and Harry was due to start his American education at William McKinley High School.

"Awesome! So am I! I'm going to William McKinley High, are you?" Harry nodded once again and the girl seemed to get even more exited, a feat that Harry didn't know was possible. "What grade are you in?"

Harry blinked at the new question. The goblins had said something about this, but Harry couldn't bring the information to the front of his brain. He knew that he knew the information somewhere, but exactly where was another question.

"I don't know. It's different in England." Harry said shortly, growing slowly annoyed by the girl's exuberance.

"Well how old are you?"

"16." Harry regretted answering as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The girl's face would split in two if she was to smile any more.

"You'll be a sophomore like me then! It will be great to know somebody before starting there. I hate having to start a new place without knowing anyone." The excitement seemed to suddenly drain out of the girl. Harry felt like he was getting mood whiplash. "It would be nice to actually have friends this time." The girl muttered, so low that Harry wouldn't have heard it if he hadn't had excellent hearing. He felt guilty for being short with the girl, whose name he didn't even know yet. The girl reminded him of a cross between Hermione and Luna, with a dash of Ginny thrown into the mix as well.

"Sophomore? What a strange way of naming your year groups. There's no confusing names for the years back in England. We Brits use logical numbering of our years!" Harry said, slipping into a stereotypical posh English accent, eliciting a musical laugh from the girl. Harry couldn't help but smile slightly.

"What was your name again?" Harry asked, already knowing that the girl had forgotten to tell him it in her excitement. The girl gasped, one of her hands flying to her mouth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot to introduce myself properly. I'm Marley, Marley Rose."

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Harry continued a slightly stilted conversation with Marley for another quarter of an hour and Harry could say that the two of them were well on their way to becoming friends. The girl with her enthusiasm and refusal to stop talking meant that she had somehow managed to start to worm her way into his heart. Harry had been determined to just get through school without getting attached to anyone, but it was already too late and he'd only been in the country for a matter of hours!

Harry had learnt many of the basic details about Marley, namely because the girl just didn't seem to know how to shut up; or perhaps it was just that Harry was so unused to talking to people since the fire that it just seemed like Marley talked forever.

Marley's favourite colour was blue; she lived with her mum, or, as the Americans say, 'mom' and was moving schools because of her mom's new job; she loved to read; and her favourite school subjects were English, Music, and History. Both of them were starting McKinley part way through high school, so it wouldn't be as bad as being the only new kid, there being two of them. Marley seemed even more pleased that he was British as according to her it would take even more 'new kid' attention away from her as, apparently, American people loved British accents. Harry had to admit that he was a little glad to know someone before starting at McKinley High.

Marley ended up having to suddenly leave, the girl having forgotten that her mother was waiting for her at home. Harry continued his walk, but couldn't help the small smile that was on his face. It seemed Lima was going to be a little more interesting than Harry had initially thought.

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 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

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	2. Chapter 2

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CHAPTER 2

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I am a sheet of paper  
Give me some coloured pens  
I don't mind if you go over the edges  
Did you know that we all just love to play pretend

'Tell Me A Story' by dodie.

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Why?

Why had he decided to put himself through this? He could have just confunded a muggle into hiring him and got a job and just started working. Why had he made the Hermione-esque decision to go back to school? Harry walked across the car park of the school and had instantly attracted the attention of all the students around. The dreaded whispers had started and Harry couldn't help but mentally groan, nothing would ever change, he'd always be the freak, the odd one out. He walked inside the school building and followed the signs to the reception, and coughed slightly to get the attention of the person behind the desk. It wasn't long before he had his lesson schedule, a map of the school, and a number that was supposed to be his locker number, but he had no clue where it would be. As he turned around to see if he could find the room for his first lesson on time he bumped into someone, knocking them to the ground. Again he managed to catch them before they hit the floor, immediately recognising the person in question as Marley Rose.

"We have got to stop meeting like this!" Harry quipped sarcastically and stepped away from . The girl in front of him blinked twice, looking confused.

"Harry?"

Harry waved awkwardly at Marley. Wanting to talk to her, but at the same time not knowing what to say to her. It had been an age since he had been a part of any conversations that hadn't involved more than a general introduction; not since before the fire.

Marley looked towards the sheet of paper in his hand.

"What have you got first period?" She asked.

"English in Room 134." Harry replied with a shrug.

"Me too."

The two of them compared timetables and Harry realised that they shared a lot of lessons, which was okay. Harry found himself not being averse to spending time with Marley, even though he wasn't very skilled at the whole conversation thing. The two of them decided to try and get a head start on finding the English classroom, which, according to the map the receptionist had given him, was on the other side of the school. Harry wasn't too scared of getting lost, McKinley was nowhere near as big as Hogwarts, and it hadn't taken too long to get to know his way around that castle. This would be a piece of cake.

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Despite having followed the map, Harry and Marley could not for the life of them find the classroom that they were supposed to have been in for their first lesson five minutes previously. Harry sighed in frustration. He really had to stop jinxing things with his thoughts.

"I give up!" Marley said, swinging her arms out. "It's impossible, we'll never find it."

"Where you heading?" said a voice from behind them said, making Harry jump. He spun around, hand twitching towards his wand holster, itching to grab his wand, before he realised that it was just another student.

Harry took a deep breath in, forcing himself to calm down.

"We're trying to find Room 134. But we can't seem to find it." He said to the person. Harry couldn't tell whether the person in front of him was a guy or a girl. The person was wearing makeup, but they could have easily been either. It didn't particularly matter which they were, but it threw Harry slightly that he couldn't tell. The person's face lit up upon hearing his voice.

"Ooh, British? Me like! You're close Limey, 134 is just around that corner." They said, pointing in the direction they were talking about. "I'm Unique Adams, I got first period in 135."

Harry was hoping that the person's name would give him some clues as to the gender of the person in front of him, but he still couldn't pin down the gender.

"Harry Evans." Harry said, nodding towards Unique in thanks.

"I'm Marley Rose. Both of us are new here and so we didn't know where to go and it's taken forever to find where we need to go." Marley said with a smile.

"I just transferred from Carmel High. So I don't really know my way around here well, but I've been here a few times because of Show Choir competitions with Vocal Adrenaline, the Glee Club there." Unique replied.

Marley nodded and looked as if she knew what Unique was on about, but Harry was just confused. What on earth was a Glee Club? Harry assumed it was an extracurricular, but he didn't understand the purpose behind it. Were they a club about being happy?

Harry quietly voiced his questions, getting a laugh from both girls

.

"Glee is a music club." Unique explained, "They are a show choir, which means they sing whilst rocking some sweet moves."

Harry blinked, slightly confused by the explanation.

"They dance, silly." Marley said, sticking her tongue out at Harry.

"I knew that!"

"Of course you did Brit Boy." Unique teased, "Anyway, I was part of the Glee Club back at Carmel. I came here because the Glee Club here is really accepting and welcoming of people who are a bit different. It was way too intense back at Carmel. Why'd you two come here?"

Harry felt his panic levels rise. He hadn't thought of anything to say to explain why he moved.

"Oh that's awesome! I'm auditioning for the New Directions tomorrow! My mum got a new job in these parts, so I had to move schools. " Marley answered. They both turned and looked at Harry when he didn't immediately answer.

Harry took a deep breath and spoke. "Threw a dart at a map and it landed on Lima." Harry said with a shrug, in a voice that he hoped sounded nonchalant.

"Fair enough. Anyway, we should probably get to class before the teacher kills us." Marley suggested, as they were all now ten minutes late. They thanked Unique and walked into the classroom. Harry breathed a sigh of relief when neither of them questioned his reasoning for moving any further.

The teacher, Mr Beebe, was fine with Harry and Marley being late, but did ask them to try not to be in the future. The lesson was relatively boring. Mr Beebe was a poetry enthusiast and loved English poets. He had immediately asked Harry a million questions on which British poets he liked, and had he heard of this person, or that person. Harry hadn't a clue about any of the people who Mr Beebe had talked about, and as a result the teacher soon moved on to telling them what they would be studying that semester.

He went on about this man called John Clare who was some English poet in the nineteenth century who liked nature and so decided to write a whole load of poems about it. Apparently the guy ended up in an asylum, and escaped twice. Marley seemed to like the guy's poems, but Harry personally found the poetry dull. He had flicked through the book of poetry they had each been given and there was maybe three poems in the whole anthology that wasn't about nature in some way or another. Apparently for the semester they would be talking and analysing the poems and comparing them to each other.

Harry discovered Mr Beebe had a tendency to start babbling on about some random topic, which could be interesting sometimes, but was most of the time even more boring and took up almost all of their lesson time.

Mr Beebe had gotten sidetracked somewhere along the line and had spent the majority of their class time talking about the origins of surnames and what they meant. He had learnt that the Beebe meant 'one who farms bees' in the midst of all the babbling, but that had been it for the rest of the lesson.

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By lunch Harry was dreading having gone back to school.

Most of his teachers throughout the day had talked for half the lesson about the aims for the semester. It was only in art class that he was allowed to do something for himself.

The teacher, who looked kind of hung over to be honest, had just let them do their own thing for the entire lesson. Harry had just started doodling in his art book and zoned out for most of the lesson. When the bell rang out, Harry was jerked back to reality. He looked down at his page to see the bloody scene of the attack on The Burrow. He could almost smell the smoke coming from the page.

Harry hadn't noticed he was lightly crying until a tear splashed his sketch, blurring the ink and making it run, causing the image to distort. He tore out the page from his art book, screwed it up and threw it in the bin.

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Lunch itself was an interesting experience.

Marley was sat on a full table, her back to the door that Harry had walked in. He recognised her by her hair. From a quick glance around, Harry determined that Unique wasn't in the cafeteria either, and so Harry was unable to sit with the only two people that he currently knew. Harry sat down on a table within earshot of where Marley was sat and started to eat his lunch.

The people sat at one of the tables near him, who had previously been talking about that 'Glee Club' thing that Unique had been talking about earlier and from such were evidently the members of said club, were making fun of the larger lunch lady that had smiled at Harry as she handed him his lunch.

"Hey, you guys see the new lunch lady? She's so fat, they took a picture of her last Christmas. Still printing." This jab at the lady's weight seemed to amuse those around the table, but Harry noticed that Marley had also overheard what was being said as a frown appeared on her face as the words were said.

"Hey, she has to wear a watch on both wrists because she covers two time zones." Another person said. Marley's frown deepened.

"Maybe she has, like, a medical condition or she swallowed somebody with a medical condition."

"Right Artie?" The guy who had said the second insult asked.

A guy that Harry could see was sat in a wheelchair was deliberating whether to join in or not and Harry was genuinely disappointed when the guy made the wrong decision.

"When she sits around the house, she really sits around the house."

Marley appeared to have had enough of the cruel remarks. She stood up, threw her fork to the floor and stormed out of the cafeteria, eyes glued to the floor. Harry didn't think that anyone other than himself actually noticed Marley's exit.

Harry stood up and walked over to the table. Rage freely flowing off of him as he let his annoyance be shown.

"Why should the lunch lady be belittled just for 'a little fun'?" Harry asked coldly, "Why should they have to put up with your crap? What right do you have to make them feel anything less than welcome? I've been at this school less than a day and I can see that what I heard about the Glee Club being a welcoming place must be wrong. You're nothing but cowards, cowards and bullies."

Harry turned his back and walked out of the cafeteria. He may have just ostracized himself from the entire school, but he didn't care at that moment in time. Harry set off to go see if he could find Marley, but struggled to find her. That might have had something to do with the fact that he was completely lost as well. Harry wandered around the school for most of the duration of lunch before he heard a voice singing somewhere that sounded somewhat like Marley.

Harry followed the sound of the voice, hoping that his gut was right and it was Marley singing, to what seemed to be an auditorium. The source of the singing was indeed Marley sat at a piano on the stage. She had just started a new song and she seemed to be singing her heart out, not knowing that she had any audience. Harry had never heard the song before, but it had Harry blinking away tears. Marley had gone through the pain of feeling invisible at some point, that much was obvious.

Marley had a truly beautiful voice, but there was such a deep pain in it that Harry could almost not bear. He didn't want anyone to go through what he had to go through in his life with the Dursleys. There he truly was invisible.

As Marley played the last through notes of the song on the piano, Harry stepped into the auditorium properly, as he had just been stood in the doorway.

"That was amazing." Harry said quietly. Marley spun to face him.

"How long have you been standing there?" She demanded, a slight panic in her eyes.

"Just for that song." Harry said, and Marley seemed to relax, placated by his answer. She sat down, legs dangling off the edge of the stage as Harry walked up to the stage and sat next to Marley on the edge of the stage. Harry rubbed his hands together, unsure what to say.

"Are you okay?" he asked finally, looking up and into Marley's eyes.

"I'm fine." Marley said quickly, but it was fairly obvious lie. Harry smiled slightly.

"It seems that we have something in common!" he exclaimed. Marley looked confused at Harry's statement. "We both say that we're fine when it's really obvious that we're not."

Marley looked sheepish and a bit annoyed that Harry had seen through her so easily. "I'm sorry, it's just-"

"I know, it's disgusting what some people will say. I let them know that before I came to look for you." Harry said, interrupting her. Marley looked confused and guilty.

"You were in the cafeteria? I'm so sorry! I did look for you, but I couldn't see you and so I sat with a couple of people that I met in Math class. If I'd known I would have sat with you!"

A small smile crept it's way back onto Harry's face momentarily. It was great to have friends again; although it was his fault in the first place that he didn't have any. Harry forced himself not to think about that and, instead of dwelling upon his past, responded to Marley

.

"That's okay."

The school bell signifying the end of lunch rang, making them both jump.

"We should probably get out of here, there could be a lesson in here next." Marley said, hopping off of the stage and onto the floor, dragging her bag with her.

The two of them started to wander the school, as neither of them had any lessons left that day, in order to find their lockers. Each had a number on it, Harry's was 687, which was strange in itself as that was also his vault number at Gringott's. At least it would be easier to remember! Marley's locker as somewhere near his as her number was 683. They eventually found their lockers, and dumped most of the school books that had accumulated throughout the day into them.

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Before he knew it the bell for the end of the day was ringing and that meant that Marley had to go home. Harry, seeing no point in staying at school any longer than he had to walked back to his new house and collapsed onto his sofa.

He had actually survived his first day of Muggle School. He grinned to himself. It hadn't been perfect, and he had almost had several flashbacks, but he had at least one friend in Marley. It hadn't actually been too bad a day, he hadn't been attacked by anyone, like Dudley had always done at Primary School, and there hadn't been any attempts on his life yet. But then again, those kind of life ending events had always occurred towards the end of the school year. Hopefully, being away from the magical world would mean that he would avoid that kind of drama. It would be nice to end the school year without a tonne of stress.

Harry fell asleep that night with high hopes for what the next day would bring.

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 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

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	3. Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

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 **I put my foot in my mouth again**

 **I hope they still want to be my friends**

 **I got desirable qualities**

 **If you don't mind my obsessing with me**

 **I kept repeating myself yesterday**

 **Repeating myself I keep on yesterday**

 **I want a people that I can call home**

 **But why do the work when I'm doing just fine all on my own**

 **'** **On My Own' by Tessa Violet.**

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The school day seemed to fly past to Harry. His lessons over all hadn't been particularly good, having had English, Science and double History that morning. Muggle School seemed to be a lot more boring than it used to be. That may have just been because he had a magical education to compare it too.

History wasn't as bad as the other lessons, Harry had been able to sit with Marley, but American History was very confusing. It probably didn't help that Harry hated history anyway. After having Professor Binns, any history at all threatened to make him fall asleep. Mr Schuester wasn't as bad a teacher as Professor Binns, but he tried far too hard to engage the students and so in the process lost the respect of the majority of the class.

After History had finished Harry and Marley took a trip to their lockers to get rid of their unneeded books. Harry had just closed the door to his locker when there was a tap on his shoulder. Harry immediately crouched and span, sweeping the feet whoever had touched him from underneath them. The person hit the floor with an 'oomph'.

Harry looked up to see there was also a small group of people who had somehow gotten behind him without him noticing.

"Can I help you?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at the ragtag bunch of students. The group looked to be in shock at Harry's actions, as did Marley, whose jaw had actually dropped. Harry was panicking slightly inside, hoping that they wouldn't hate him for reacting in such a strange way.

"We wanted to thank you." The guy in the wheelchair, which Harry recognised from lunch the previous day as 'Artie', said as the person he had floored got up.

"Thank me?" Harry asked. What did they want to thank him for?

"We wanted to thank you for knocking some sense back into us. I think being popular felt a little too good and we forgot ourselves. We won nationals last year, and the school suddenly loved us, I guess we got so caught up in our fame that we became what we hated most." Said an asian looking girl who was stood behind Artie, elaborating on the words Artie had spoken. Harry was slightly shocked. They were thanking him for having a go at them? Harry was more used to the Gryffindor approach of the offended just shouting back in those sorts of situations.

Another guy with brown curly hair, who was also the guy that Harry had floored, said, "One of the best parts of Glee club is that everyone gets to be a star, no matter who they are or what they look like. It would be a shame that we scared away a potential member with our awful behavior in a moment of such lapsed judgement."

There was a long moment of awkward silence that Harry didn't know how to fill.

"Well that's one person you've won back." Marley said from her position behind him. Harry noted that he had automatically stepped in front of her when he had initially perceived a threat. Marley must have really wormed her way into his heart already if he was already subconsciously trying to protect her.

"Where do we sign up? I wasn't going to audition after what you all did yesterday, but you've changed my mind."

"Great!" One of the girls said, "Auditions are after school in the auditorium. There's a signup sheet on the extracurriculars board."

"Which is where?" Marley asked sheepishly, "We're both kind of new here."

"I could show you where the extracurriculars board is if you want?" Artie said.

Marley smiled, "That'd be great."

Artie showed them the way and both Marley and Harry found himself talked into signing up as well by Marley. It was only after Artie had left that Harry realised that he had no clue what he was going to sing. There was only an hour or so until the auditions started. He had to pick, and probably learn a song, and quickly! Harry quietly mentioned his problem to Marley.

"I already know which song I'm going to sing. So I can help you if you want?"

"Thanks," Harry said. "I haven't a clue where to start."

"Well, what kind of songs do you like?" Marley asked.

"I've never really listened to much music." He told Marley, who looked at him weirdly. He shrugged.

"My aunt didn't like it in the house much, unless it was her music. The boarding school I went to back in the U.K. didn't allow electronics and there wasn't really a choir or anything there; well apart from my second year there, but that fell through due to lack of interest. So, yeah, I haven't really heard that much music at all."

Marley looked thoughtful. "What songs _have_ you heard then? It's better to go with something that you know, at least a little."

Harry thought back to when his aunt would play music around the house. There had been that one about girls having fun that Harry had a vague memory of playing in the house before Uncle Vernon had turned it off. It was one of the few muggle pieces that he had actually heard.

"There is this one song. I think it's called 'Girls just wanna have fun'." Harry said unsurely.

"By Cindi Lauper? That's an okay song." Marley said, looking like she was trying to not laugh at the song choice, "Maybe we could do something to make it a bit different; make it work for you."

"It's in a happy key normally isn't it?" Harry said, using his _very_ basic music knowledge, "We could put it into a sad one. Would that change it enough?"

Marley blinked. "That's actually a really good idea!" She said, her eyes twinkling in her excitement.

"Instead of this," Marley said and sang a small part of the song, "Putting it into this key." Marley demonstrated what she meant, cringing slightly when a few of the notes didn't quite fit. Harry let a small smile onto his face. He liked how it sounded.

Harry looked around and suggested that they go into an empty classroom or something so that they didn't disturb anyone. Marley agreed with him and so the two found an empty classroom to practise in. Marley wrote down the lyrics to the song and sang the first few lines in the new minor key. Harry echoed her and carried on the song, his eyes closed, hoping that he was doing this key change thing right.

Although Harry had never really sung much, there was something about singing that just set him free. It was even better than flying and quidditch! Nobody back in England had known about his love for singing. His aunt had discouraged him as Uncle didn't like music at all, he thought it was a pastime for 'pansies', and apparently Harry had a voice like nails on a blackboard. But Harry was sceptical about anything that Vernon insisted was fact.

He had only let himself sing occasionally, and only when he was sure that he was alone, and so he was nervous as to what Marley would think of his voice. It would be a confirmation as to whether his uncle had been correct or not. Harry got to the end of the song and opened his eyes, looking to Marley. She was looking at him with her jaw lowered.

"Are you sure that you've never had any singing lessons or anything?" Marley asked.

"No." Harry said cautiously. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"I think that you're not going to have any problem getting into Glee Club. You didn't even have to look at the lyrics and got them almost perfect, but what you did with them was even better! And you're change to the minor key was spot on throughout! Oh my goodness, you have such an amazing voice Harry!" Marley gushed. He wasn't that good, was he? Uncle Vernon really had been wrong? The bell rang, interrupting whatever else Marley was going to say.

"We should probably grab something to eat before heading over to the auditorium. I don't think I'll be able to stomach anything until after the audition." Harry said, changing the subject, and cutting off any further discussion.

###############################

Before he knew it he was stood on the side of the stage waiting for his name to be called to audition. Marley had already had her turn. She had sung a song called 'New York State of Mind. Harry had been mesmerised by her voice once again. There was something about Marley's voice that was almost magical.

"Harry Evans" Mr Schuester called. Harry took a deep breath to steady himself and walked out on stage. He walked out up to the band on stage and had a quiet word with them, before he walked up to the microphone and took it out of the stand.

"Hi, um, I'm Harry Evans and I'll be singing 'Girls just wanna have fun' by Cindi Lauper."

Someone snickered from the audience. Harry put the mic back into the stand and hummed his starting note.

 _She comes home in the morning light_

 _Her mother says when you gonna live your life right_

 _Oh mother dear you're not the fortunate ones_

 _And girls they want to have fun_

 _Oh those girls just want to have fun_

 _Ooh_

Harry sang the first part a cappella and nodded to the onstage band to join in, and so one guy with a guitar joined in for the next verse.

 _The phone rings in the middle of the night_

 _Her father yells what you gonna do with your life_

 _Oh daddy dear you know you're still number one_

 _But girls they want to have fun_

A girl with a tambourine joined in next.

 _That's all they really want_

 _Some fun_

 _When the working day is done_

 _When the working day is done oh_

 _That's all they really want_

 _Some fun_

 _When the working day is done_

 _When the working day is done_

 _Those girls - just want to have fun_

 _Oh those girls just want to have fun ooh_

The tambourine girl waited until the next chorus to join in again.

 _Some boys take a beautiful girl_

 _And hide her away from the rest of the world_

 _She want to be the one who walks in the sun_

 _And girls they want to have fun_

It was on the last chorus that the person on drums and electric and bass guitarists joined in for the climax of the song, dropping out at the end so that it was just the guitar was still playing with him for the last two lines.

 _That's all they really want_

 _Some fun_

 _When the working day is done_

 _When the working day is done oh_

 _That's all they really want_

 _Some fun_

 _When the working day is done_

 _When the working day is done_

 _Those Girls - they want to have fun_

 _Oh those girls just want to have fun ooh._

Harry smiled, happy with his performance and opened his eyes, having closed them at some point in his performance. There was silence from the audience. No applause, despite what looked like half of the glee club being there watching. You could have heard a pin drop. Harry stepped away from the microphone, and turned to walk off the stage. It was then that the people watching must have realised he was leaving as there was a splattering of applause.

"Thank you Harry." Mr Schuester said neutrally, "The list of people who have been accepted into Glee Club will be up on the extracurriculars board by the end of the week."

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 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

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	4. Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

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 **** **"Don't you think it's funny how we wander in and wander out of everything and everyone we meet.**

 **But, that's the way it goes. I guess we're just a couple ghosts to several-hundred people, you and me."**

 **'** **Calm Normal' By Rusty Clanton**

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The next few days passed in tense anticipation for Harry and Marley. Harry made a few new acquaintances, but he wasn't a very talkative person, and as such most people found the mostly one sided conversations awkward. In addition to this, his outburst in the cafeteria had meant that no one wanted to be seen as friends with him in fear of being 'slushied'. Apparently throwing sweetened and coloured ice at people was a common pastime for the Jocks and cheerleaders at this school; the Glee Club being their favourite targets.

In having gotten on the wrong side of the people in question on the first day of school, Harry soon found himself 'one of those targets. The first time that they had approached him with the drinks he hadn't been expecting it to be thrown at him. He hadn't expected the several cups of cold, sticky liquid to burn his eyeballs. Neither Marley nor himself had had the chance to recover and respond to the perpetrators before they were gone, Harry was too busy trying to get the icy liquid out of his eyes. Harry was annoyed at himself. at his lack of constant vigilance. Mad Eye would have been so disappointed in him. Harry was disappointed in himself. He had won a war and he couldn't dodge a measly drink thrown his way? Harry had ended up spending the rest of that day a sticky mess, as he didn't have anything to change into and he didn't want to miss any of his classes that afternoon. One of the Glee kids, after seeing Harry covered in slushy, had offered him his jacket and had helped Harry clean himself up. It meant that although Harry felt sticky, one couldn't really tell that he had been slushied.

The slushies that were sent Harry's way on Thursday reached a very different destination to those that had been thrown at him the day before. Harry had been on edge all day, not wanting to be caught off guard again. As such, Harry had heard the jocks coming; they hadn't attempted to be particularly sneaky. Harry had dropped to the floor, spinning and taking the feet out from underneath the group of jocks. The icy drinks flew out of their hands, spilling the contents thereof across the bullies.

"I am not someone you want to mess with." Harry said, his tone as cold as the 'slushies' that covered the jocks, "I have gone easy on you, not wanting to draw attention to myself. But here I draw the line. You will stop this juvenile behaviour or I will make you."

There was a moment of silence and the jocks scrambled away from Harry like the rats they were. Marley had just stood there in shock until Harry nudged her shoulder slightly with the back of his hand.

"What was _that_?" She asked. Harry looked around at all the other people in the corridor, who weren't even trying to hide the fact that they were listening in. Harry shook his head and walked away from her. He knew enough about Marley from the few days that he had known her that she would not let him get away with getting away that easily. If Harry had to give her any sort of an explanation, it would be one in private, without the rest of the world listening in. Harry felt that he sort of owed the other girl and explanation.

The two ended up in a classroom that was not being used that period. Marley sat next to him atop one of the tables.

"Harry?" She asked cautiously. Harry took a deep breath in before answering her.

"I was a part of the Fight Club at my previous school. I heard those bozos coming from a mile off and took them down a few pegs." Harry said looking at his swinging feet. Technically what he said was true. One could definitely count the D.A. as a Fight Club. "I don't like bullies."

"The first rule of fight club; don't talk about fight club." Marley said with a wink, confusing Harry. He vocalized his confusion and Marley looked at him strangely. "Have you not seen fight club? The movie?"

"No?" Harry hadn't even heard of it. Although, what Marley had said was relevant to the D.A.. Marietta Edgecombe had learnt that the hard way.

"There are so many movies that I'm going to have to make you watch." Marley said fondly, shaking her head lightly. It wasn't Harry's fault that the Dursleys had never let him watch anything. Harry was slightly taken aback by the feeling behind the statement and his head snapped up, meeting Marley's eyes. He had known this girl for less than a week and she had wormed her way well into his heart, and it hadn't even taken a Mountain Troll to motivate them to become friends. It was nice. To Marley, he was just Harry. She didn't know his past. She didn't pressure him to reveal anything either. He had half expected to be interrogated by the girl after his actions in the corridor, but she had done the opposite of push. She seemed content to get to know what Harry would let her see.

Harry let a small smile slip through his barriers and onto his face. This friendship was bound to end up with someone getting hurt, but in the moment Harry didn't care. He would probably regret it later on, but it felt so good to have someone who didn't judge him for the weird things that he did.

The school bell rang and Marley hopped off of the desk and quickly towards the door. Before she exited the room she turned around.

"You know, I've been told that I make a pretty good listener. We've only known each other a week, but if you ever do want to tell me everything, you can. "

Marley left, leaving Harry frozen to his seat. Marley was far, far more observant than Harry had given her credit for. Harry had thought that he had been doing a reasonable job of hiding the fact that he was hiding his past, his previous identity. Evidently he hadn't been doing a good enough job if Marley suspected he was hiding something. He'd have to come up with something he could tell her at some point. Something that was a slither of the truth, but that didn't really tell her anything at all.

Harry wasn't aware of any time passing and it was only because of a teacher walking into the classroom and basically telling him to get lost that he made it to the last class of the day on time.

####################################################

Friday.

Each day previous Harry had checked the extracurricular board for the audition results and each day previous the results had yet to be published.

But it was Friday, the deadline for the results for Glee Club. Harry checked the extracurricular board at several intervals throughout the day. At Harry's lunchtime check of the board there was a new piece of paper with a list of names on it. Harry took a deep breath in and read down the list of names. All of the current members were on the list. As he reached the bottom of the list Harry saw his name. Harry let out a breath that he hadn't even known that he had been holding in. He had actually gotten in!

Looking a little further down the list, Harry realised that other than himself, only two people had been accepted into the Glee Club. Those people were Marley Rose and someone called Charlie Emery. Harry found himself with a smile on his face. He and Marley had both gotten into Glee Club! It would have sucked if after giving in to Marley's attempts to get him to audition he hadn't even gotten in.

"Excuse me?" a small voice to Harry's left said, jolting Harry from his thoughts, "Could you move?"

Harry turned towards the voice to see that the small voice had not come from someone small in stature. To his left was a tall strawberry blonde girl, who was much taller than Harry was. He would estimate her height to be somewhere in the region of six foot, and she was a good head and a half taller than Harry was. Despite the height advantage that could have made the girl imposing, the girl looked as if she wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

"Sorry." He said, and moved out of her way. The girl walked up to the Glee list and stroked her finger down the list of people who had gotten into Glee Club until she stopped at a name. Harry didn't remember the girl auditioning at all, but judging by the mini victory dance the girl was now doing, she had gotten in. She must have been the Charlie person Harry had seen on the list. Harry hadn't expected them to be female. He had forgotten that Charlie was a unisex nickname and so had created a mental image that was something along the lines of a younger Charlie Weasley. A mental image that was evidently completely and utterly wrong.

The girl seemed to remember that she was not alone and stopped dancing suddenly, arms still in the air. She blushed enough to put a Weasley to shame, lowered her arms, and looked down to her shoes. Harry smiled at the girl who, despite the name, reminded him of a young Neville Longbottom and, despite the fact that he didn't really talk all that much to the people at this school apart from Marley, made the decision to try and befriend Charlie. If she was anything like Neville was, she would be an amazing human ebing that just lacked the self confidence to let the world know that.

"Hi," he said, sticking his hand for a handshake in greeting, "I'm Harry."

Being so much shorter than the girl meant that his hand was directly in her line of sight, despite the girl's bowed head. She looked up at Harry, seemingly startled. Harry moved his hand away.

"What's your name?" Harry asked. The girl mumbled a quiet answer that Harry didn't quite hear.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

The girl mumbled again, this time just audible enough for Harry to hear a small "I'm Charlie Emery."

"It's nice to meet you Charlie. I see you made it into Glee club, that's great! I just got in as well." Harry said with a smile. Before Harry could say anything else to the girl the bell for the end of lunch sounded and Charlie rushed off, a soft "Bye" reaching Harry's ears.

#################################################

With no more lessons that day, Harry realised that he had an hour to burn before his first Glee Club meeting after school. Harry decided to do what Hermione would have done and headed to the library to do some of his homework. She would be proud that he voluntarily had sought out the place, rather than being forced into being there. Apparently they were for students to use whenever they liked. Harry had never been on a computer before, although he had seen many in Dudley's room.

'Logging on' was Harry's first challenge, and although it was a challenge, being a Gryffindor, Harry didn't back down. However, after 10 minutes of being unable to figure out how to turn the stupid thing on Harry went and asked the librarian for some help. The librarian had given him a strange look when he had asked for help. Harry felt so stupid in that moment. Most people his age were probably amazing at using the computer. It wasn't Harry's fault that he had never had the chance to use one before.

After the librarian had helped him get the computer up and running, Harry stumbled across a website called 'YouTube' which seemed to be full of music. Harry grinned and put on the headphones that were attached to the computer he was using. The plethora of music that there was online astounded Harry. There was such a variety in the world and Harry loved it. Harry soon decided that he would go out shopping and get one of these 'iPod' things that kept being advertised before the videos. Just listening to music sent excitement running through Harry's veins. There was something magical about the way that music could touch his soul. It was a strange feeling, but the good kind of strange. Clicking around on YouTube was like his first trip to Diagon Alley all over again.

He couldn't wait for Glee Club now.

Before he knew it the hour was over and the bell was ringing, signifying the end of the school day for most people. Harry shot up out of his seat and was halfway out the door before he realised he had forgotten his bag. He quickly grabbed it and was almost running to get to the choir room on time. The flow of people trying to escape school for the day was inhibiting his progress though.

By the time that Harry finally got to the choir room, Glee Club looked like it was just starting, the teacher stood at the front, talking to the group. Harry knocked on the door as he entered, apologised for his lateness, and sat down in between Marley and Charlie. Charlie had blushed madly when Harry sat down, but he ignored that in favour of listening to Mr Schuester.

The man in question welcomed everyone to Glee Club, and asked if anyone had anything that they wanted to sing to the group. Immediately many of the older Glee kids started vying for Mr Schuester's attention to let them perform, and soon a full out argument had erupted over who would have the chance to perform. Only the newcomers were not a part of this chaos. Harry rubbed at his face. This arguing what not what Harry had imagined Glee Club would be like. Suddenly, Harry was hit by an idea. He turned to Marley and Charlie and asked if they knew the song 'Hiding My Heart' that he had come across on YouTube.

"That's the one that Adele put on her album isn't it?" Charlie asked softly. Harry nodded, smirking at the confused look that Marley was giving him.

"How do you know the song?" She questioned. Harry's smirk widened. Marley hadn't known that he had spent that afternoon expanding his music knowledge.

"There's this thing called YouTube." He replied and stuck out his tongue at her, "I had a free last. Anywho, what do you two say to showing these Glee kids how it's done?"

"I'm in." Marley said immediately. The two of them looked to Charlie, who blushed at the attention. The girl seemed to ponder it over quickly and then nodded her consent.

Harry stood up and started singing, not caring that there were people shouting all about them.

 **(Harry)**

 _(Marley)_

(Charlie)

 **This is how the story went**

 **I met someone by accident**

 **Who blew me away**

 **Blew me away**

 **And it was in the darkest of my days**

 **When you took my sorrow and you took my pain**

 **And buried them away, buried them away**

It took a few moment for the other people in the room to realise that someone was singing, but a hush fell about the room as Harry sung the first verse of the song. He walked forwards as he sung until he was in the middle of the room. He turned towards the girls and they joined him in standing facing the rest of the people in the room as they started singing the chorus of the song.

 _I wish I could lay down beside you_

 _When the day is done_

 _And wake up to your face against the morning sun_

 _ **But like everything I've ever known**_

You'll disappear one day

 _So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart_ _ **away**_

Harry smiled. Their voices just clicked. The three of them had never sung together before in their lives and they hadn't practised the song or even discussed parts before he had started. Somehow they didn't have to communicate who was going to take what parts. They just knew.

 _Dropped you off at the train station_

 _Put a kiss on top of your head_

 _Watched you wave_

 _ **And watched you wave**_

Then I went on home to my skyscrapers

And neon lights and waiting papers

That I call home

 _ **I call that home**_

There was something different in singing without any accompaniment. It was just their voices. Harry smiled. If Glee Club was anything like this moment that he was sharing with Marley and Charlie then it would be something special.

 _ **I wish I could lay down beside you**_

 _ **When the day is done**_

 _And wake up to your face against the_ _morning sun_

 **But like everything I've ever known**

 **You'll disappear one day**

 _ **So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away**_

The three of them held eye contact for a moment, letting silence fill the room before Harry started the next verse.

 **Woke up feeling heavy hearted**

 **I'm going back to where I started**

 **The morning rain**

 _ **The morning rain**_

 **And though I wish that you were here**

 **On that same old road that brought me here**

 **It's calling me home**

 **It's calling me home**

 **I wish I could lay down beside you** (I wish I could lay down)

 _When the day is done_ (when the day is done)

 _ **And wake up to your face against the morning sun**_

But like everything I've ever known

 _You'll disappear one day_

 _So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away_

I can spend my whole life hiding my heart away

 **I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away.**

The Glee club burst into applause and Harry couldn't help but grin. Harry held his hands up and received simultaneous hi-fives from both Charlie and Marley.

"Too much arguing, too little singing." Harry said and all three of them sat down. "This is supposed to be a singing club, is it not?"

" You have a good point Harry. Thank you, all three of you. That performance was wonderful. Welcome to the New Directions!"

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 **Please review and let me know what you think!**

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	5. Chapter 5

**#########################**

 **Chapter 5**

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 **"** **Maybe make believe is not as lonely as alone**

 **Silence brings the truth, but it breaks the fantasy**

 **The only one I'm talking to is me"**

 **'** **Broken Record' by Tessa Violet**

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September soon came and in turn gave way to the beginning of October. The jocks soon learnt not to slushie Harry, nor to slushie anyone in front of him; and it had only taken a total of seven broken bones for them to do so. They didn't dare mess with Harry anymore. He wasn't sure as to how long that it would last. The jocks would surely forget at some point and attempt to slushie Harry again, but Harry was plenty ready to break more bones as a reminder, should it come to that.

Meeting the Coach Sylvester had been an interesting experience. The woman had the snark of Severus Snape, combined with the self entitlement of Umbridge and the vanity of Lockhart. It was an epileptic personality mix to say the least. She was a good person to verbally spar with, and didn't seem to mind when Harry shot everything she threw at him back at her. She had already dubbed him with a plethora of insulting names, whilst simultaneously trying to warn him away from the Glee Club. Harry hadn't let the woman's words get to him though. He was enjoying Glee Club far too much to give it up any time soon.

Glee Club was a novel experience for Harry. Everyone there seemed to love music so much that it was slightly overwhelming at times. Harry was learning leaps and bounds about music and how it worked. When Harry revealed to Mr Schuester that Harry had hardly heard any music in his life, the teacher was almost vibrating in excitement. He had proceeded to spend a little extra time any time that he used any musical term, explaining what the term meant. He didn't do this in an overly obvious way, but Harry knew that it was directed at him. Harry was slowly learning more and more about music.

Harry had also approached the Glee Club's pianist and asked if the man would be interested in teaching Harry the instrument. The large instrument never failed to remind Harry of Hermione, and the endless days spent in Grimmauld Place in which Hermione attempted to teach both of the boys to play the instrument. Harry regretted that he hadn't taken more of an interest when Hermione wanted him to learn, but Harry hadn't seen the point in wasting the time, when he could be using it to search for the blasted Horcruxes. So he approached the piano player, who's name Harry discovered was Brad, and soon secured Piano lessons every other day after school. Harry was paying the man a decent amount per lesson, as running out of money wasn't too much of a question for Harry with the sheer amount of money that an assortment of people had left to him at the end of the war. Brad seemed genuinely happy to pass on his knowledge to him. Apparently he was progressing well with the instrument, although that might be because Harry felt that he owed it to Hermione to put his best effort into actually succeeding in learning it.

Harry had never thought that he would be able to open up to having friends after the the deaths of everyone who dared to get closed to him, but Marley, Charlie and Unique had managed to worm their way into his world and into his heart, not that they knew that of course. Outwardly, Harry was keeping all of them at an arm's length. He didn't want to come to rely upon them. Harry knew that if he opened himself fully to them then he was just going to get hurt. However, Harry's wall of resistance was slowly being worn down by their persistence. Harry also had a casual friendship with Artie from Glee Club, and he would occasionally talk to a few other people in his classes, but Harry mostly kept to himself. Most people couldn't seem to be bothered to try for friendship when Harry was very short with his answers the majority of the time. His short sentences killed most conversations that people started soon after they started, and thus everyone at school was already learning to leave him alone. Everyone that is but Charlie, Marley and Unique. Marley and Unique were plenty happy for Harry to only offer the occasional vocal part of their conversations. Charlie was one of the few people that Harry made a concerted effort to talk to. Harry was determined to help the tall girl like he had Neville and foster her self confidence.

The only big problem that Harry found with William McKinley High School was the sheer amount of work that the teachers were piling on them. Each teacher would set at least 2 hours of homework after each lesson, usually to be due in the next time they had a class with the teacher. Harry guessed that this was to make up for the lack of work that tended to happen actually within classes. For a few of Harry's classes there was only a day between classes, which gave Harry hardly any time in which to fit the homework into. Harry found himself with an almost endless list of essays that he had to complete, an equally ridiculous pile of worksheets to complete and a ton of art homework to complete and turn in. Art homework generally took a lot longer than Harry thought that it would. It wasn't as simple as just throwing some paint at a canvas. His teacher hadn't improved since his first art lesson, and was hung over more often than not during the lesson. However, the teacher seemed to make up for the waste of a lesson by setting them copious amounts of homework instead. It took hours just to complete one piece.

Harry had found himself very quickly falling behind in most of his classes. He was unused to such a workload, and after having not had a muggle education for 7 years, he found that he struggled to understand some of the class work. Hogwarts had never set so much homework. At Hogwarts essays were measured in length. If you needed to take up some more space, you could just write slightly bigger. However, at McKinley teachers set a minimum word limit. Harry was slowly but surely falling behind. There was no Hermione to make sure he was completing the work on time. She was dead.

As the end of October approached Harry found himself more and more unwilling to talk to people. He would just glare, rather than engage in conversation; and he quickly grew tired of any attempts to draw him into one. He had started walking away from conversations with Marley. The girl just did not know when to shut up. Luckily, the girl had another distraction from Harry and his impatience with the world in the form of Jake Puckerman. The guy was bad news. He was more conceited than Malfoy had been, which was saying something, but Marley refused to listen to reason when it came to Jake. The girl was absolutely smitten with the heartbreaker. Jake had apparently auditioned for Glee Club, but hadn't gotten in because he had thrown a temper tantrum on stage. Jake had auditioned for the musical that Artie had run, the final performance having been the week previous.

Harry had not had the time to be a part of the musical, he had far too much on his plate to be able to add something else to the mix. Jake, through landing a role in the musical, had become a member of the New Directions along with Ryder Lynn, Joe Hart and a girl called Kitty Wilde. Jake had quite the temper, to put it lightly, and because of it Harry couldn't help but be reminded of his uncle every time that he raised his voice. Harry loathed it when people shouted, especially when it was directed at him. Unfortunately there had been a handful of times wherein Jake's anger had been directed at Harry and he had been wary of Jake ever since.

Harry had noticed that the Glee Club seemed to be a place that was constantly full of all kinds of drama. Harry almost laughed. He had moved to Lima to escape from the drama of England, just to move somewhere that seemed to experience just as much drama. Sure, the drama was much less deadly, but it was drama nonetheless. Even the teacher was unaffected by the perchance for drama. Mr Schue had announced at the beginning of the week that he had been offered a position on some blue ribbon panel for the arts, but had turned down the position to stay in Lima. The rest of the Glee Club had seemed shocked, but Harry hadn't really understood what all the fuss had been about.

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Harry arrived at the day's Glee club session to see that he was the first to arrive. Not even the people who played the instruments had arrived yet. Looking at the clock and deciding that it would probably be at least another five minutes before anyone else arrived Harry sat down on the piano stool. His lessons with Brad had prompted him to buy his own piano that he could practise on at home during his spare time. At the moment Harry could only play a few pieces properly, but he understood how chords worked and had made sure to learn a couple of songs that he could sing along to. It was satisfying to be able to accompany himself.

The current week's Glee challenge was Reminiscence. The week was almost over and Harry had managed to evade performing his song in front of the Glee Club. For someone who was running from their past, Harry was finding that finding a song that explained what he was feeling, without giving everything away was impossible. Harry had had a song picked out from before the challenge had even begun. It was one of the few that Harry had learnt on piano, but he had get to sing it all the way through without crying. He couldn't help but think of his friends; of Ron and Hermione, and all the others who had left him. He had played the song so many times over the past couple of weeks that every note was embedded in his brain.

Harry glanced towards the door, and seeing that there was still nobody around started to play the song that had been haunting his mind recently.

 _How can I just let you walk away, just let you leave without a trace_

 _When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh_

 _You're the only one who really knew me at all_

 _How can you just walk away from me,_

 _when all I can do is watch you leave_

 _Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears_

 _You're the only one who really knew me at all_

 _So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space_

 _And there's nothing left here to remind me,_

 _just the memory of your face_

 _Ooh take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space_

 _And you coming back to me is against the odds and that's what I've got to face_

A tear made its way down Harry's face. He missed everyone so much that it physically hurt. Everyone that he had loved had been violently ripped away from him: his parents, Sirius, Remus, The Weasleys, Ron, and Hermione. The only ones that had truly known him.

They were all dead; an empty space in the place where they should be.

Harry had lost the resurrection stone. He had gone back after the attack on The Burrow, but he had been unable to find the artifact, despite looking until he collapsed from exhaustion. It was then that he decided that he would have to accept that it was gone, lest he go crazy with grief and mirror Cadmus Peverell. He still hadn't quite accepted the fact that he wasn't going to be able to talk to them again, but Harry didn't think he ever would. It would never make sense that they were taken from this earth, whilst he was doomed to still walk upon it.

 _I wish I could just make you turn around,_

 _turn around and see me cry_

 _There's so much I need to say to you,_

 _so many reasons why_

 _You're the only one who really knew me at all_

 _So take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space_

 _And there's nothing left here to remind me, just the memory of your face_

 _Now take a look at me now, cos there's just an empty space_

 _But to wait for you, is all I can do and that's what I've got to face_

 _Take a good look at me now, cos I'll still be standing here_

 _And you coming back to me is against all odds_

 _It's the chance I've gotta take_

 _Take a look at me now_

Harry sat on the piano stool, not even trying to stop the tears that made their way down his face. He held back a sob. Why? Why did they all have to die? Harry was lost in his thoughts, but was jerked violently away from them by the applause coming from behind him. He span around on the piano stool towards the source of the noise. There were people stood in the doorway. What appeared to be the whole Glee Club was crowded around one of the two open doorways; standing there and applauding him. Harry felt anger swell within him. He had not realised that his performance had an audience. Nobody was supposed to have seen him that vulnerable; seen him that weak. They didn't know him, didn't know his past, and none of them would ever understand his pain. None of them knew the monster that Harry truly was behind the mask he presented to the world.

Harry ran.

Harry ran until he thought that he was far enough away from the choir room, and ducked into a random empty classroom. Harry absently noted the plethora of papier-mâché planets that were hanging from the classroom ceiling, but didn't pay them too much attention. He threw himself into the furthest corner from the door and curled himself up as small as he could. He couldn't believe that he had been so stupid as to let his walls down outside of his house. They had seen him weak. How was he supposed to keep them all at arms length now? Harry forced the air from his lungs and shakily took another breath in, his hands gripping his legs slightly tighter. Harry noted that his hands were shaking. Why were his hands shaking? Harry concentrated on trying to keep his hands still, but soon realised that it wasn't just his hands that were shaking, but his whole body. Why couldn't he stop the shaking? Harry found his breath coming quicker as he failed to control the shaking. What was wrong with him? Harry swallowed, forcing air past the huge lump in his throat, and rested his head on his palms.

Why?

Why did they have to die? Why did Ron and Hermione have to leave him? Why did he have to be so weak? He should have saved them somehow. He should have done better. He was such a freak. He should have known that it wasn't going to be as easy as just moving on after the Battle of Hogwarts. He should have known that he was going to lose someone else. His life was never that easy. It was his fault that they died.

Harry dug his nails into his face. Why couldn't he stop himself shaking? He needed to stop the shaking. Breathing was probably a good idea too. Harry took a deep shaky breath, but it didn't help. He was still shaking, and his extremities had started to tingle. It was a weird sensation. Harry laughed at himself. He was such a freak. He couldn't even control his own body.

The door opened.

Before Harry even knew what he was doing, he was up on his feet, crouched partially behind the nearest table. His hand twitched towards his wand, but Harry knew that he couldn't get it out in front of muggles. He glanced around the room and swore mentally when he realised that there was only one entrance to the room. A person stepped into the room and Harry tensed. IT was Mr Schuester. The man looked like he was about to leave the room when he tilted his head. Harry swore internally again. Mr Schue had spotted him. The man entered the room fully, shutting the door behind him and Harry tensed further, if such a thing was even possible in his current state.

"Harry?" He said softly. He sounded concerned, which confused Harry. He glanced around the room, cursing himself once again for choosing a classroom with only one door to exit from. Mr Schuester walked towards him until he was about two metres away from Harry and sat down on the floor, his arms on his knees. He tried to look Harry in the eye and Harry flinched away from the eye contact; away from the veiled pity that he knew would be in those eyes. Mr Schue sighed and Harry flinched away from the noise. He could already hear the pity; the judgement. He was such a freak. Why couldn't he just react normally? Harry's still shaking limbs probably had something to do with that.

"Harry? I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?" Mr Schue asked. It was almost as if the man cared, but Harry decided that he must be mistaken, he had only been in Glee a few weeks and never really participated all that much. Everyone else was so dramatic that it had been easy for Harry to just slip into the background.

Harry laughed mentally. Was he okay? It was such an unneeded question. He obviously was not okay, but he hadn't been okay since his parents died, so it was Harry's normal state of not okay. An unbidden thought of something Hermione had said to Harry roughly a month before she had died popped into Harry's head. They had had an argument, both unleashing their bottled feelings of general frustration at each other. After they had both calmed down Hermione had made Harry promise to not bottle up his feelings. Harry clenched his teeth. He wasn't going to talk to some teacher that he barely knew.

Harry closed his eyes, clenched his fists and tried futilely to stop the shaking. Mr Schuester drew him into a hug whilst his eyes were shut. Harry immediately stiffened and waited for the man to let go. A few moments passed and Mr Schuester didn't release Harry from the embrace. Harry gave into the contact he didn't know he craved. After a few minutes Harry's brain caught up fully to the situation that he was in and he jerked away from the hug. Harry stood up and quickly crossed the room before the teacher could stop him.

"I'm fine Mr Schue." Harry said and left the room, not even bothering to glance at the man he left crouched on the floor.

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